Poxel Gets $17.1 Million to Advance Type 2 Diabetes Drug Trial

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Poxel SA has raised 13 million euros
($17.1 million) in venture backing, which it plans to use to
start a mid-stage clinical trial for its experimental Type 2
diabetes drug.

It’s the second round of financing from the company’s
existing investors Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, CDC
Enterprises within the FSI France investment program and Omnes
Capital, previously known as Credit Agricole Private Equity, the
Lyon, France-based biotechnology company said in a statement
today.

Imeglimin, its lead compound, is part of a new class of
oral anti-diabetics called glimins and targets three organs
affected by the disease. Acting on the mitochondrial level, the
drug inhibits liver glucose production, increases muscle glucose
uptake and restores normal pancreatic insulin secretion. The
drug was safe and well-tolerated and showed some benefit when
taken with Merck & Co.’s sitagliptin in the most recent trial,
the company said Nov. 5.

“The majority of the proceeds will go toward making it a
Phase-III ready product,” Thomas Kuhn, Poxel’s chief executive
officer, said in a phone interview.

The next trial will test the drug as a stand-alone
treatment on 400 patients beginning in early 2013, with data
expected a year later, Kuhn said. Type 2 diabetes is the more
common form of the disease affecting 366 million people
worldwide, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
That number is expected to jump to 552 million by 2030, the
federation estimates.

Same Investors

Poxel was spun off from Merck Serono, the pharmaceutical
division of Merck KGaA, in 2009 and has no remaining ties to the
German drugmaker. Poxel raised 16 million euros in July 2010
from the same investors.

The company plans to find a partner to conduct late-stage
trials of the drug, which may be used in combination with
metformin and sitagliptin in patients who no longer respond to
the existing treatments, Kuhn said.